Rising reaction as US companies seek tariff waiver for Trump's steel

WASHINGTON (AP) – US companies seeking to be exempted from President Donald Trump's tariff on oil Imported steel accuses American steelmakers of inaccurate propagation and misleading information, and they fear that this could torpedo their demands.

Robert Miller, President and CEO of NLMK USA, stated that the objections raised by U.S. Steel and Nucor to his offer of waiver are "literal untruths". He said his company, which imports huge slabs of steel from Russia, has already paid $ 80 million in customs duties and will be forced to close if it is not not exempt from the 25% rate. US Steel and Nucor are two of the country's largest steel producers.

"They should be ashamed of themselves," said Miller, who employs more than 1,100 people in the Pennsylvania and Indiana factories

. several other leaders, is evidence of the backlash on how the Commerce Department badesses their claims to avoid the right on steel imports. They fear that the agency is being influenced by the opposition of US Steel, Nucor and other domestic steel suppliers who claim to have been unjustly harmed by an overabundance of electricity. Imports by Trump's tariffs

. Steel stated that its objections are based on detailed information on the dimensions and chemistry of the steel included in the applications. "We read what is publicly displayed and respond," spokeswoman Meghan Cox said. Nucor did not respond to requests for comment

The more than 20,000 requests for waivers received by the Commerce Department illustrate the chaos and uncertainty engendered by Trump's trade war against Allies and the United States. opponents of America. It's a battle that critics of its trade policy, including a number of Republican lawmakers, have warned is misguided and will eventually hurt US companies

Trump and European leaders agreed on Wednesday not to aggravate their trade dispute, but the steel tariffs and a separate right on aluminum imports remain in place, the United States and Europe aimed at a trade agreement wider. Metals taxes would continue to hit US trading partners such as Canada, Mexico and Japan, even if the US and the EU reach an agreement.

Miller seizes the insistence of Nucor and US Steel. "It's just not true," he said.

His company is not the only one to look abroad for a product described as being constantly in deficit. California Steel Industries, a plant located east of Los Angeles, in Fontana, called the scarcity of slabs "acute" on the west coast and said its waiver application is critical to its survival

. on a rarely used 1962 law that gives it the power to impose tariffs on particular imports if the Commerce Department determines that these goods are threatening national security. He added a twist: companies could be excused from the tariff if they could show, for example, that US manufacturers do not manufacture the metal they need in sufficient quantities.

But there are obstacles to getting an exemption. A single company may have to file dozens of separate applications to account for even slight variations in the metal that it buys. It means a mountain of paperwork to fill accurately. Otherwise, the request may be rejected as incomplete. All of this can be time consuming and costly, especially for small businesses.

Applications are subject to objections. The Commerce Department publishes online exemption requests to allow third parties to offer comments – even from competitors who have an interest in seeing a competitor's request denied. But objections are often submitted when the comment period ends, reducing the plaintiff's ability to respond.

Willie Chiang, executive vice president of Plains All American Pipeline, told the subcommittee that he had no opportunity to respond to objections containing "incorrect information" before the Commerce Department rejected his request for exclusion. Chiang did not say who submitted the inaccurate information.

"The intention here is to limit imports on a large scale," said Richard Chriss, executive director of the American Institute for International Steel, a free trade group opposed to tariffs. "From the point of view of the administration, it would not make sense to design a process that would easily grant exclusions."

The Commerce Department declined to comment on this story.

Ministry officials have until now made public only a small number of their

An badysis of figures by the Rep. Jackie Walorski, an Indiana Republican and one of the most outspoken opponents of the Steel Tariff at Capitol Hill, shows that 760 requests were approved while 552 were denied. The ministry has not yet approved a waiver request that has raised objections, according to Walorski's review.

The MP's office also reviewed more than 5,600 publicly available comments and found that they were submitted an average of four days before the end of the 30 comment period. More than 50% of comments were delivered 48 hours or less before the comment window was closed. It took an average of nine days for the department to post comments online after receiving them, according to the badysis. The most prolific comments were Nucor and US Steel with 1,064 and 1,009 respectively.

A claim for exemption by Seneca Foods Corporation for tinned steel that she had already agreed to purchase in China was among the refusals. The US steel company objected, calling the tinplate a "standard product" readily available in the United States. In fact, US Steel said it was currently supplying equipment to Seneca Foods, the country's largest canned vegetable manufacturer.

Seneca Foods, based in New York, declined to comment. But in its claim for derogation, the company said that the domestic tinplate "is of inferior quality to the imported materials". Seneca Foods also said that at best, it is unclear whether US suppliers have the ability or willingness to increase their long-term production to meet the company's annual demand.

Crown Cork & Seal of Philadelphia's metal packaging for food and beverages, submitted a strongly worded attachment to its waiver request that provided for a setback from domestic manufacturers. According to the document, US mills can not meet the global demand for tinplate and do not plan to increase their capacity. "We anticipate that US factories will try to refute this badertion when they will oppose this exclusionary request, but we encourage the Ministry of Commerce to attempt to manipulate the rules of the application process." Exclusion, "said Daniel Shackell, vice president of steel supply at Crown Cork & Seal, who is not optimistic about the chances of all 70 approved waiver applications. Eight have been granted up to now mainly because the metal specified in these applications is not manufactured in the United States. Twelve others were rejected, leaving another 50 to decide.

"It is hard not to interpret that the Commerce Department wants domestic suppliers to have an advantage," said Shackell.

Jay Zidell, president of Tube Forgings of America, a small company in Portland, Oregon, said he filed 54 exclusion requests and US Steel opposed 38 of them . The US Steel said it was "willing and ready to meet" Tube Forgings' demands for carbon steel tubing. But Zidell said the comments ignored the past problems of quality and metal fabrication that led his company to break a previous relationship with US Steel.

Yet, he fears that the Commerce Department does not approve all claims. Tube Forgings has already spent $ 600,000 on rates, he said, and perhaps on the hook for much more than that.

"The whole system is just baded up," said Zidell.

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